Bitcoin ‘Ordinals’ Boom Fuels NFT Activity Surge
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CoinDesk Market Index (CMI)
1,180
+10.2 ▲ 0.9%
Bitcoin (BTC)
$24,829
+131.0 ▲ 0.5%
Ethereum (ETH)
$1709
+12.8 ▲ 0.8%
S&P 500 futures
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FTSE 100
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Treasury Yield 10 years
3.83%
▼ 0.0
BTC/ETH prices per CoinDesk indices, as of 07:00 ET (11:00 UTC)
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has published its proposed rules for crypto trading platforms. The regulator is seeking comments on whether to allow licensed platforms to serve retail investors and what consumer protection measures to offer. The new rules will also mean that all platforms must apply for a licence, including existing ones. Platforms “should begin to review and audit their systems and controls to prepare for the new regime,” the SFC said. It was misconstrued through a tweet last week that the city was supposed to offer crypto trading to retail investors, which is not the case. Hong Kong’s new licensing regime for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) starts in early June, but it only allows exchanges to provide access to professional investors.
Helium is set to transition to the Solana blockchain by March 27, developers have said. It has led to an attendance the decentralized wireless network’s HNT tokens, which have risen nearly 6% to $3 in the past 24 hours. After the migration, HNT, MOBILE and IOT will all be issued on the Solana network and continue to be tokens in the Helium ecosystem. A new version of the Helium wallet app will be available, and users will also have the option to use Solana-based wallets such as Phantom and Solfare.
Crypto-focused the hedge fund Galois Capital has shut down after losing a significant portion of its assets during FTX’s collapse last year. Galois told CoinDesk last November that the $40 million committed to FTX made up about half of the funds. The FT reported earlier today that Galois is selling his bankruptcy claims for 16 cents on the dollar. In other FTX-related news, founder Sam Bankman-Fried and other executives have been subpoenaed by bankruptcy brokerage Voyager Digital’s unsecured creditors. Their lawyers are investigating FTX’s attempt to save Voyager when it went bankrupt last July.
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The chart shows weekly volumes for bitcoin and ether options listed on Deribit since February 2022.
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Last week, the volume of bitcoin options totaled $5.4 billion, the highest in three months, while the theoretical volume in ether options was $3.1 billion.
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“Market participants continue to show preference over Bitcoin,” said Amberdata’s Greg Magadini.
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Traders opened long positions in bullish calls at $26,000, $28,000 and $30,000 with conviction in the second half of last week, Magadini added.
– Omkar Godbole
